DECEMBER'S BLOCKS - 2005-2006 RCTQ Block-of-the-Month (BOM)

Dad went into a rest home because of Alzheimer's. The ppl there were
extremely good to him (small town). He HATED chicken--they always made
something else for him. One day he asked why he didn't get what everyone
else had. It was chicken. Mom went home and cried and cried. That was the
major turning point for him. The ppl there really cared about their ppl
(hard to say patients in a place like that).
Hope your Mom's place is as good.
Huggles
Butterfly

"Bobbie Sews Moore" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks Heidi, All warm thoughts and prayers gratefully appreciated. I
treasure all my RCTQ friends!
Barbara in SC
"hfw" wrote in message
...
What a difficult time for all of you. I remember when my mom went into a
nursing home. You will be in my thoughts.

--Heidi
Plattsburgh (UPstate) NY

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b



--

"Bobbie Sews Moore" wrote in message
ink.net...
Thanks for sharing. My DSister is almost constantly in pain from a back
injury and other problems and walks with a cane. She is also bipolar.
With all this, sometimes she says that she thinks of ending it all. She
is married with 2 adult children. Sometimes I think if she had a close
friend to talk to, it would help her. She is 58. Our mom was placed in
a nursing home 2 days ago. When driving to see mom yesterday, Dsister
was involved in a 1 car accident that may have totaled the car.
Thankfully she was not injured except for the bruises.
Barbara in SC
"

In article ,
"Butterfly" wrote:

I have a cousin that is in a coma---has MS and had a series of strokes. She
is being kept alive via a feeding tube. Don't know ANY details other than
the family is very upset about that.

Butterfly (she's younger than I by a few months)


Without details, it's difficult to judge. However, it sounds like cruel
and unusual (or usual?) punishment to me.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

Which brings up the question . . .

How many of you have living wills? We each have one - copy of file at the
clinic, copy on file at the hospital, copy in a file at our son's house,
and two or three copies on file at home.
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org

"Sandy Foster" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Butterfly" wrote:

I have a cousin that is in a coma---has MS and had a series of strokes.
She
is being kept alive via a feeding tube. Don't know ANY details other than
the family is very upset about that.

Butterfly (she's younger than I by a few months)


Without details, it's difficult to judge. However, it sounds like cruel
and unusual (or usual?) punishment to me.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

In article ,
"Donna in Idaho" wrote:

Which brings up the question . . .

How many of you have living wills? We each have one - copy of file at the
clinic, copy on file at the hospital, copy in a file at our son's house,
and two or three copies on file at home.
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org


Unfortunately, not all states honor them or consider them legal. Nevada
is one that doesn't.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

Sandy, I wasn't aware of that. I just assumed - you know what happens when
you assume! Wonder what the reason is that Nevada doesn't recognize living
wills?
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org

"Sandy Foster" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Donna in Idaho" wrote:

Which brings up the question . . .

How many of you have living wills? We each have one - copy of file at
the
clinic, copy on file at the hospital, copy in a file at our son's house,
and two or three copies on file at home.
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org


Unfortunately, not all states honor them or consider them legal. Nevada
is one that doesn't.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

I've made the same decision and told all those I love that when I decide
I've enjoyed all of this life I can stand that I will control how and when I
leave. Needless to say - those that love me are not happy knowing that this
may occur but are comforted by knowing that I won't have to suffer and that
I will die with dignity. I have a living will that outlines in detail my
refusal of extreme life saving measures and my DS has my health proxy giving
him the authority to enforce my living will. I understand how your sister
could make such a decision and glad to hear that she had a loving and
understanding family to support her in that decision.

--
http://community.webshots.com/user/snigdibbly
SNIGDIBBLY
~e~
"
/ \
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/snigdibbly.
http://www.ebaystores.com/snigdibbly...ox&refid=store
"Tia Mary" wrote in message
...
SNIGDIBBLY wrote:
I don't have an answer for that. I have known some people who said their
lives were just too painful to endure. I strongly believe in
self-determination but suicide can be a selfish act that leaves those who
loved that person with such raw, agonizing pain and so many unanswered
questions. ......

This is sort of long -- sorry. I haven't followed this thread but I
wanted to say that there are people like my older DSis who committed
suicide. She was in her mid-50's at the time (1994) when she finally made
the decision to leave us. When conceived, she was *supposed* to be a
conjoined twin connected at the base of the spine. The other fetus
spontaneously aborted at about 6 months gestation and as a result my DS
was born with Spinabifida, clubbed feet, Scoliosis, severe nerve damage to
her bladder and other problems too numerous to mention. He spine was so
deformed that one hip was a full inch higher than the other. She was
*always* in pain as an adult. When her Dr. told her that she would soon
be on morphine to handle the pain, she knew she would very soon end up in
a nursing home and be bed-ridden.
She knew that once on morphine she would have less than a year to live
so she decided it was time to take her leave. After Christmas, she
started to tell everyone that she was just too tired and in too much pain
to deal with another hot Phoenix summer and would probably "do what needs
to be done". She left us on 04 June 1994 and the only one who was really
surprised was my Dad, probably because he never did acknowledge the fact
that she had such severe handicaps. Her suicide *was* a selfish act but
one that was understandable and didn't really cause severe trauma for
those of us left behind.
Anyway, I personally feel that people who are in chronic terrible pain
that cannot be alleviated or have a terminal illness -- things that we
know will not ever get better -- have the right to choose when they will
die. I am still upset about the fact that my poor sister had to take this
last step all alone because anyone who had been with her could have been
prosecuted and put in jail. DSis was SO severely handicapped that an
autopsy wasn't done, even tho' she had died "under unknown circumstances".
Once the medical authorities got one look at her body, they understood and
KNEW she had been a suicide.
Obviously, the whole family was upset about loosing her but we knew why
it happened. Her true friends understood and there wasn't really anything
unusually traumatic for us in dealing with the loss. We were lucky in
that we all (except for Papa) accepted her decision and knew that she WAS
in a better place. Unfortunately, this isn't true for many families of
suicides. I like to think that she chose self euthanasia as opposed to
suicide. Her death was a well though out occurrence, there was no severe
emotional problem, and she really didn't have many other options. VBS --
I still miss her even tho' we weren't close. CiaoMeow
^;;^

--
PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their whiskers!
Visit my Photo albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

Is that a recent occurence?? My dear Pollock's first wife died of ovarian
cancer. Her mother had a stroke and was in a vegetative state residing in a
Skilled care facility in Las Vegas. She was in a coma for months and
finally her only surviving daughter requested her feeding tube removed. She
had a living will on file and they had medical proxy. She was taken to a
hospital and we all came to visit one last time and a few days later she
died. The hospital staff and doctors were so kind to the family. My
Pollock adored his MIL and visited her frequently after his wife died.

--
http://community.webshots.com/user/snigdibbly
SNIGDIBBLY
~e~
"
/ \
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/snigdibbly.
http://www.ebaystores.com/snigdibbly...ox&refid=store
"Sandy Foster" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Donna in Idaho" wrote:

Which brings up the question . . .

How many of you have living wills? We each have one - copy of file at
the
clinic, copy on file at the hospital, copy in a file at our son's house,
and two or three copies on file at home.
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org


Unfortunately, not all states honor them or consider them legal. Nevada
is one that doesn't.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:59:01 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

My DD has recently been diagnosed with Manic-Depressive/Bi-polar Disease
and has often said how painful her life can be when she is in her low
times.[...] The Lithium has evened it out some but has horrible side
effects.
Her hand trembles so much that she can no longer hand quilt or cross stitch
and that breaks her heart. They are still working with the dosage but her
neurologist says she may have to live with this particular side effect in
order to even out the mood swings.
The hand tremors are called tardive dyskinesia.

No they aren't. That's a side-effect of drugs used for schizophrenia.

It can be caused by drugs for schizophrenia, anti-psychotics, and
several mood stabilizers. It is most often seen with the mood
stabilizers when they are used in conjunction with other psychotropic
drugs or in excessive dosage. Lithium alone might not do it, but
lithium and depakote combined might for example. Or in my case, 900
mgs of lithium combined with 500mgs depakote and 36 mgs perphenazine.
Yeah, I think the doctor was trying to put me into a coma.

There are more than a few mental health drugs that can cause it.
Often switching drugs can stop it while still taking care of the
symptoms you are taking it for. If you do not switch off on the drugs
the tremors may become permanent.

That's the case with tardive dyskinesia, but NOT with lithium. Lithium
tremors are reversible.

Lithium tremors are technically tardive dyskinesia.
If tardive dyskinesia is cut off at the pass so to speak, it is
reversable. If allowed to continue without stop, it becomes
permanent. It takes longer to become permanent with some drugs than
with others.

This is a subject that I have researched the hell out of.
As I mentioned before, the psychiatrists in my life do not give a rats
behind what the drugs do to me so long as I approach their definition
of normal. So I had to more or less take matters into my own hands as
regards my health and etc.


It is still a hell of a dangerous drug. There are other drugs with
differently nasty side-effects - carbamazepine is the most commonly
used. Therapy for bipolar disorder is mainly a matter of choosing
which set of gruesome side-effects you least object to putting up with
for the rest of your life, but at least none of the usual options
involves permanent brain damage, as can happen with anti-schizophrenia
medication.

I ended up with a less reliable short term memory (down from nearly
eidetic) and my gag reflex is shot. Seems perphenezine is used to
treat spontaneous vomiting as well as being an anti-psychotic. Oh
yeah, quitting taking that stuff after a few years was just a barrel
of laughs.


I was briefly on lithium for depression 30 years ago. Tried it twice
a few months apart.. Both times I developed screaming night terrors,
on one occasion waking up to find myself in the cold air halfway out
of an upper-floor window after tearing the flyscreen off it. That one
isn't even in any reference book I've seen, so in overall terms it
counts as minor.

You have to just love how they give you stuff and never warn you about
any side effects or say you should stop taking it if such and so
happens.

Probably the worst one was zyprexa, it is supposed to be very safe and
is specific for my condition (mania). But then I had a known, but
rare, side effect. I turned into a stark raving psycho-bitch. Ummm,
best I can describe is 'angry' PMS ^10. One of those states of mind
where everyone seems incredibly stupid and you become certain that
they are doing it just to annoy, because nobody could be that dumb.
Violence through frustration was right around the corner. So when my
husband got me to call my doctor (all right I'll do it just shut up
about it) and I got to talk to his nurse, who is literally half deaf,
on the phone, and she started asking me actually stupid questions my
patience was not all that. Even so they wouldn't suggest I stop
taking the stupid drug. DH tried calling and explaining, they told
him if he was afraid of my becoming dangerous that he should call the
crisis line. Poor DH ended up calling the pharmacy, talking to the
head pharmacist, who in turn "talked me down" enough that I realized
that the drug had completely messed me up.
What these mental health professionals are thinking most days is quite
beyond me.

One thing is certain, you have to see other doctors and keep them very
informed about your drug intake if you expect to keep your physical
health. IME psychiatrists are very slack about such things. I had
been taking depakote for more than 5 years before I knew that I should
have been having a quarterly hepatic screening. The psychiatrist
neither mentioned that, nor ordered one. As it was an additional side
effect of the zyprexa was that it made me gain nearly 50 pounds in
three months so the doctor discontinued both it and the depakote
because he was afraid the weight gain was due to liver damage.
Thankfully it wasn't, but jeez!

NightMist
and now some three years later that weight is finally coming off
--
"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge
it, requires brains." -Mary Pettibone Poole

NightMist,

Thanks for the information. I will remember to ask my doc about this
when I go back to see her shortly. I have recently noticed an increase
in the trembling and didn't really give it any thought...now I'm
wondering if it is because of the switch in antidepressants.

I *love* this group and its wealth of knowledge...not just baout
quilting, but EVERYTHING!!

NightMist wrote:

Hey Snigs!

The hand tremors are called tardive dyskinesia.
There are more than a few mental health drugs that can cause it.
Often switching drugs can stop it while still taking care of the
symptoms you are taking it for. If you do not switch off on the drugs
the tremors may become permanent.
I got it at one point when I saw a substitute doctor at the clinic and

Tia,

I am very sorry for your loss. It never really goes away.

My family and I will never have that kind of closure from my brother's
passing. He was just 16 when he decided it was all too much.

Physically he was fine, and well, needless to say we thought everything
was fine mentally too. The note wasn't conclusive enough.

We were three months apart in age (both of us and my older sister are
adopted - no common biological parents).

Today is his birthday and he would have been 35.

He is sorely missed.

Jenn in CA